


First and forever

by JoeyChanSan



Category: Free!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Splash Free, M/M, Rinharu Week
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-23
Updated: 2015-11-23
Packaged: 2018-05-03 00:35:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5269937
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoeyChanSan/pseuds/JoeyChanSan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rin does some reminiscing about the first time his path crossed with Haru’s.</p>
            </blockquote>





	First and forever

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to the Homodachi for the beta.

Despite their countless lives together, the many centuries spent repeating a cycle of finding, reconnecting, loving and losing each other; despite their fading and blurry memories from all their past lives overlapping and merging all at once in a somewhat confusing, dim and unidentifiable mass in which none of them could be 100% sure of what had really happened and what was nothing more than a part of their dreams or imaginations… Despite everything, Rin still could remember clear as a day the first time he'd laid his eyes upon Haru on that oasis thousands and thousands of years ago. 

 

At that time, Rin had been the sultan of a small, yet quite prosperous country in the middle of the desert. The size of his kingdom wasn’t bigger than a tenth part of the expanse of the domains of the closest neighbour’s kingdom, but that had never been a worry or a reason to be ashamed for Rin. He understood that the value of a land couldn’t be determined by how vast it was or how many cities were under the law of a sole king. His late father had always taught him that a country’s value should be determined by the happiness and well being of its citizens. That had been the main premise of Toraichi’s rule, and that was Rin’s too, since he wanted to live up to his father’s legacy.

Daily life wasn’t hard, but it wasn’t an easy walk either. Like every other land in the desert, people had to deal with hardships such as extreme heat at day followed by the plummeting temperatures at night, the occasional sandstorm, bug plagues that threatened their harvests… and of course, the shortage of water. 

At first, the prolonging of the dry season hadn’t been much of a trouble; there were reserves of water enough to last for at least half a month in the palace’s basement, and prior experience showed that dates were not exact since the calculations of the months were made based on the lunar cycle, so it was within the possibilities that rain came a week, or even two weeks later, like it had happened before back during Toraichi’s reign when Rin was no more than five years old. Those were reasons why none of the advisors gave too much importance to the issue when Rin brought it five days later of the designated time for the rainy season to start, disregarding their king’s concern and claiming that he was just overthinking and worrying too much for his people, like a good sultan should. (Like his father had.) 

Rin had wanted to believe them, he really had, and for the few following days after bringing up the issue to the Council, Rin had been able to successfully push that presentiment to the back of his mind. The sultan continued with his daily tasks of listening to the people’s demands during the morning and studying to gain in wisdom and doing paperwork during the afternoon. However, he couldn’t help the nagging feeling that something was not right growing with each passing day when he looked outside the windows in the morning and saw the skies were still serene, undisturbed blue, and the sun shone bright, with no cloud big enough to cover it in sight. 

It was almost a week later when Rin called for the Council members so he could bring up the matter again. And this time, he didn’t allow his advisors to try and convince him that he was worrying too much about the issue and that everything was alright. A few of them made the attempt to speak and soothe Rin’s worries with sweet, meaningless words only to be silenced by a gesture of their king’s arm. The rest of the counselors weren’t so eager to try and ease up the sultan’s worries. Rin could see on their faces how they were as aware as he was of the magnitude of the serious threat looming over their heads.

“We have to take measures, and we have to take them now,” Rin’s voice was stern, full of authority, effectively silencing any further protest. He didn’t want to hear more ‘I think you’re rushing and that you should take a bit more time deliberating about this, my king’ thrown his way. He’d had enough of this. He might’ve been young, but his father had raised him and his sister well.

“But what can we do, your majesty?” One of the counselors asked, giving Rin a rather helpless and pitiful look.

Rin sighed as he raked his fingers through his hair, making it look even more messier than it usually did. They were supposed to help him come up with a solution for whatever trouble they should have, not dump everything on him. Why would he need to have a Council, then? Maybe it was time to replace some of his advisors. Most of them were old hags that only worried for their own well being, after all. Age had made them lazy. Rin made a mental note to search at a later date for people suitable to fit the role of a royal advisor, and went back to the task at hand. 

“That’s what you’re here for,” Rin shot the man a glare that would make even the toughest of his guards cower in fear, then let his gaze wander over the Council members as he exposed his suggestions. “It’d be wise to start rationing the water now. That way we can make the reserves last approximately a week longer, leaving us with three weeks of water supplies, instead of two.”

“That’s a very good idea, your Majesty,” over half of the men in the library were quick to agree with Rin’s suggestion, making the sultan roll his eyes. Of course they would agree so easily.

“We should make a public speech as soon as possible,” another piped in, scratching his bearded chin thoughtfully. “Maybe in the next five days…”

“I will give my speech tomorrow,” Rin sentenced, ignoring all the complaints about there not being enough time to prepare a proper speech. Hah, bureaucracy. Always trying to make everything look all nice and perfect with veiled truths and empty promises. “I don’t need you to write me one. I’m giving the people the truth they deserve.” Rin hated to lie and also didn’t see fairness in feeding false words to the people that put their trust in him to lead them.

“But-”

“There’s no buts,” Rin cut off the balding man that seemed to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown just by thinking about what the sultan wanted to do. “Now, next…”

The meeting dragged on all afternoon and into part of the evening, but in the end they reached an agreement (more like Rin imposed his will) and the next morning an announcement was made, summoning all the townspeople to the place in front of the palace’s main balcony to listen to the speech the sultan would be giving that afternoon.

Said speech brought complaints at first, people complaining about the water and food rationing the sultan had just made official, effective since that moment, and until the drought was over. Complaints were followed by resigned acceptance. People knew Rin was only looking out for them, and that their king would be sticking to the rationing decree too. The Matsuoka dynasty never used their status to live in comfort while the people weathered the storm. Rin was really proud of being able to say that Matsuokas always stuck with their people when the situation called for it.

 

Two weeks later after his speech, it became more than evident that what Rin had feared the most had become true.

The rain wouldn’t come.

No matter how hard Rin worked on ensuring all of the families had at least enough water to drink, and enough food to cook a decent meal a day; there was so much a man could do. He begged each night to whatever entity was up there for the drought to come to an end, but no one listened to his pleas. 

The water reserves were starting to get low, there were only enough to last for another week, if Rin’s calculations were correct. The same was happening with the food reserves, which now were reduced to mostly vegetables, cereals and a small portion of dried fish and meat. Food however, wasn’t as much as a trouble as the water was since, in case of extreme need, Rin could always send a small party to the next city and buy some.

Rin could feel how the people grew more anxious about the weather and the current situation. There was not a single day in which Rin didn’t hear his guards talking about some fight here and there all over the city. Whilst people understood fighting amongst themselves would do nothing to help, they were on edge, and sometimes they blew up over the smallest of the things, so Rin couldn’t exactly blame them for disturbing the public order.

Another week passed, and the situation was still the same: a cloudless sky and a dry land. And to make it worse, a heat wave had hit the city at the end of the week, dragging all over the weekend and a couple of days more, forcing Rin to raise the water given to each family so they wouldn’t die of dehydration, making the precarious situation even worse.

When reserves or water finally ran out in the morning, leaving the bassins completely empty, Rin spent the day holed up in his study, trying to come up with a solution, even if deep down there wasn’t any. He could still send a small party over to the next city and pay an obscene sum of gold for two basins that would last, at most, a couple of days. But that wouldn’t solve anything either. If the rain hadn’t come in a month, what guaranteed that it would do so in just two, three days at most? They didn’t need to rely on trading.

What they needed was a miracle.

He only came out of his study late at night, when everyone else in the palace was already sleeping. Rin’s brain was telling him that he needed to rest, get some sleep and try again tomorrow to come up with a solution if the gods still denied his prayers. But something in his gut told him that he should go to the oasis right outside the city, the one of which most of their water provisions came out. His gut feelings had been right on the spot most of the time, so Rin directed his steps towards the stable.

The oasis came into view soon after he left behind the main door, and it almost broke Rin’s heart. The rich land he’d known as a kid, always full of green, lush herbs was totally dry, lifeless. As he got closer, Rin noticed there was some blades of grass here and there, but they had the same brownish hue the sand had and broke easily when Rin’s horse stepped over them. As the sight became more defined under the moonlight, the lack of the stream of water that was at the center of the patch of vegetation and life became also noticeable, surely mostly evaporated under the harsh sun rays.

But for all the things that should’ve been there but wasn’t, there was another one that shouldn’t have been there, but was.

“Who are you?” Rin demanded after dismounting his horse, tying the reins to a short, half dead tree. Trimmed by the moonlight, standing at the center of the little water left in the oasis, there was a man donned in foreign clothes. A white turban sat on his head, blue and gold shawl around his shoulders, and shirt that revealed the stranger’s lean frame, and pants that looked comfortable to move around in. Maybe he was a desert wanderer, or maybe he was some sort of prince that came from lands Rin didn’t know. 

“It will rain tonight,” the stranger cut out Rin’s thoughts as he turned around to face Rin, as if he had known the worries that had brought the sultan to the oasis that night, despite the fact it was the first time he had set foot on that land.

“That’s not what I…” Rin trailed off when the man’s gaze met his own, any protest or question dying instantly on lips. Never in his whole life had Rin seen that shade of blue in someone’s eyes.

“It will rain tonight,” the stranger repeated as he took the first stride towards Rin, followed by another, and another until he was standing right in front of the sultan, their noses only a few inches away.

“That’s not possible,” Rin argued with a whisper, still mesmerized by those azure eyes. When the stranger smiled softly at him, his eyes gleaming in an enticing manner, Rin couldn’t help but briefly wonder if the wanderer was human, or one of those otherworldly creature his father spoke of in the tales he read to him and Gou when they were children.

Rin didn’t know how much time they spent standing in front of one another, red eyes drowning in cobalt ones, before the sky roared, unleashing an ice cold downpour on them.

“I told you it would rain tonight,” the stranger mumbled, the locks of raven black hair that escaped the turban now plastered to his forehead and nose, the contrast with his pale skin giving him more of an ethereal look.

 

Maybe that desert wanderer could feel the water like he claimed he could, maybe he was indeed an otherworldly creature like Rin had thought the first time they met, or maybe he was the answer the gods had sent to his prays.

Rin would never know.

But according to the legend, after very harsh times for the kingdom of Iwami, a young man no one knew where he came from appeared and stood by the king’s side until the end of his days. And, since his arrival, no more droughts happened on the small land.

 

 

“Rin, the food is ready,” a soft and kinda monotone voice broke Rin out of his reminiscing reverie, bringing him back to the reality. 

“Coming,” he called back, wincing when he stood from his spot on the low table in the living room. Age pains were starting to get more noticeable lately. But given they both were on their way to their seventieth birthday, it was really to be expected. This cycle was slowly crawling to its end and Rin wondered what would they be doing in their next life as he dragged his feet towards the kitchen, leaving behind the modest sized piece of furniture that displayed all their achievements of Rin’s officer days and Haru’s restaurant prizes. 

It didn’t really matter though, because, whatever fate had in store for them, they would face it together.

**Author's Note:**

> First of all, thank you for reading this!
> 
> I wasn't planning on doing anything for RH Week, when this hit me at 1AM. So yeah, if there's any typo or anything like that, I'm sorry. With writting at ungodly hours and english not being my first language. mistakes are bound to happen.


End file.
